About Stanley Whitney

Drawing influence from a range of sources, including Abstract Expressionism and his African-American heritage, but hewing to none, Stanley Whitney produces abstract paintings focused on color. In inexhaustible variations, Whitney organizes blocks of colors into grids that fill the canvas. He likens his process to the call and response flow of traditional African-American music, explaining: “I start at the top and work down. That gets into call and response. One color calls forth another. Color dictates the structure, not the other way around.”

American, b. 1946, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, based in New York and Parma